1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to storage devices in general, and, in particular, to tape drives. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method for recording data freshness degrees by a tape drive.
2. Description of Related Art
When recording new data on a tape recording medium, a tape drive can record data freshness degrees on the tape recording medium along with the associated data. Data freshness degrees indicate the degree of newness of the new data to be recorded with respect to the previously recorded old data. The tape drive can perform recording so that the data freshness degrees become monotonically increasing in accordance with positions on the tape recording medium.
When a fault occurs in which the value of a data freshness degree to be written is erroneous, the entire tape recording medium is scanned to identify the highest data freshness degree value associated with the previously recorded old data, and then a data freshness degree value higher than the identified highest value is recorded in association with the new data. The scanning operation of the entire tape recording medium is typically very time-consuming.
The present disclosure provides a tape drive that can overcome the above-mentioned problem.